I see postal workers angry that Email and the internet is “taking” their jobs away delivering snail mail…. meanwhile we lose 25 billion every year and just keeps getting worse…. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/08/it-all-your-money-us-postal-service-bailout/

Now there is a dying business that is kept alive for so many years…. by a broken system USPS inside another broken system of Govt (any other business model would have been forced to fix it or die…..and to make a stronger point you even see UPS and Fedex come in and make huge profits and run a great system). Don’t just complain about it raining…. Step#1 stop complaining/get out of the rain. Step #2 realize that every challenge or problem is an opportunity in disguise. Step #3 invent the next umbrella Step#4 now that you have 1% inspiration of a new/creative idea now comes the hard part…99% perspiration (make your inventions/ideas come true). #5 plan to fail and fail and fix it and improve it and fail again, and never give up and finally win. When in doubt go to Step#1. and repeat.

Maybe in a few years you see http://www.iRobot.com making a version of a house cleaning/helper robot (starting out especially in large apartment buildings where the layout is known and all similar, we call her Bina49). They start out doing basic chores that no one really wants to do like laundry, dishes, take out the trash, clean the floors, restock the fridge or basic supplies (they auto deliver when sale prices at their best and for known items like toilet paper, paper towels, food items, cleaning products, etc). Robots then expand quickly with plug in modules like Chef 3.0 by Emeril Lagasse, Advanced Holiday Prep by Martha Stuart, Clothing/Shoe repair…. Like ordering more cable channels …LOL. I would think that at first the computer AI is very basic and often can connect us over to the Internet to do our own clever tricks with Google searches, or just connect us to real humans who then do what we need. I would also think an advanced design is to switch from Robot AI to real human monitoring systems with simple built in facetime or 2 way live video feeds to a never ending array of choices. You simply voice in your Human need (ie child care) and a list of ranked people with skill sets pop up to choose from. You pick out the characteristics you like most…. read a few quick reviews on them (Angie’s list like video listing) and see who is available online right now…. do a quick 30 sec. video interview….Nope that one rubs me the wrong way…. #2 choice…Perfect…We will be back from our show in 2 hours, you have all our contact numbers (even all robot by human interactions are video recorded and on file for review by police or by you as requested in the cloud).

In summary, if you had a robot to do everything you did not want or need to do, plus it could do it better (cook like a famous chef), even be your work out coach and life coach to be your “best self”, I can see this catching on quick and easy to customize as you need or could afford (like cable channels). Then a hybrid of half app like programs and real human interfacing with facetime like video 2x tools, these human interactions slowly, but surely replaced with great computer AI apps, leaving only the most creative things to human interactions. Now you have more time to study art and make “Happy trees” with Bob Ross…. (yeah Bob Ross, he was made into an iPhone app in 2014 that went viral to showcase the new creative art robot series http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8TS1uy1_lI don’t ask me how these things go viral, even robots can’t determine the next big thing, or if so they don’t tell us anymore….grin).

I doubt these robots ever get full human like rights…….unless of course their owners will them do them. Lets just say you don’t live forever and a freaky “accident” happens…. who would take care of your family and know your wishes better than your very own Bina49 robot helper? She lives on….. completing your “save the world” wish lists you left behind to make sure your important work was done!… she is even programmed to know what you would do…..how your decision tree works in every situation (or at least 98.72% of the time)…and we are talking your “best self” decision tree, not the one you woke up with today from the wrong side of the bed when you missed your coffee this morning in your rush to get out the door today. Then bam! when you stepped off the cub, a crazy thing happened, a street cleaner ran you over on your electric (and you had just got your carbon footprint award last week for going “neg” as they say..you broke the -00.02 barrier all the famous folks are talking about on TV…. too bad.

…well not to worry…she will take care of everything…

Years later robocops put together a strange link in the manufacturers of your home care robot with the street cleaning machine…. coincidence…well they did use the same wireless communication chip….hummn…….excuse me sir….Telephone for you….Line 2. Yes, Skynet is calling…..I knew you would want to take this call….

They are taking our jobs!

I vote yes.